the departed
by krimrose
Summary: People just keep leaving him. Would it kill someone to just stick around? Tyler/Caroline. Spoiler to Season 4, Episode 9, "O Come, All Ye Faithful." Set after episode.


**entitled:** the departed  
**summary:** People just keep leaving him. Would it kill someone to just stick around? —TylerCaroline.  
**rating:** T  
**disclaimer:** I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_.  
**notes:** Spoiler to Season 4, Episode 9, "O Come, All Ye Faithful." Set after episode.

* * *

His mother was dead. His friends—they _trusted_ him, _looked up_ to him—were dead. He had been so fluidly betrayed by Hayley—played like some sentimental stringed instrument—and the _monster_ that made him into what he is, is seeming to want him dead.

Tyler Lockwood touched his mother's cold body. Tears streaked his face as he wrapped her in his arms, apologies spilling from his lips. He tried to plead ("Mom, _please_, mom, just, I'm _so_ sorry—_please don't leave me_.") and then he cursed, and then he let the guilt consume him as he cradled his mother. His tears fell onto her like a steady rainstorm. And despite the fact that Klaus could return any moment to kill him, Tyler just sat beside the fountain and cried.

Because he had lost so much, so quickly, when he seemed to have everything just hours before.

Tyler didn't turn as the footsteps approached. It wasn't Klaus—they lacked murderous intent. Instead, they were slow, remorseful steps, weighed heavily by guilt and despair. They came to him in fear, and she need not open her mouth before he calmly said her name.

"Hayley."

The footsteps stopped abruptly as she stood behind him. She must have mustered up everything to come to him. "I'm—"

But he didn't want to hear the voice that had betrayed him. "_Leave_." He meant so much more than that. He meant, "Don't ever appear in front of me again." He meant, "Get out of town and don't ever return here." He meant, "Leave _before I kill you_."

And it didn't take more than the flurry of eyelashes for him to feel the gust of wind that signaled her departure.

Forever.

"Mom," he took a long breath, "let's go home." Because Tyler Lockwood didn't want to be alone in that house—so full of grandeur, yet so empty of life.

It was a dead house now.

* * *

The rustle upstairs could only be one person.

A very special person, but one who he had temporarily set aside. Caroline filled other spaces in his mind, apart from everything else, she was an entity of her own.

The creak at the top of the staircase, the gasp of air, and the rush of warmth as she stood beside him, was her arrival into his misery.

Always arriving—that was Caroline.

She didn't speak but just started to cry a little as she moved to open the way for him. Tyler slipped pass her with his mother in his arms, heading toward the master bedroom where again, his mother would have to sleep by herself, as she did every night since his father's death.

_On second thought_, Tyler made an abrupt turn and began heading upstairs. She would sleep in his room. She would leave her motherly essence on his bed sheets and she would be somewhere filled with him. And he would sleep on the floor, or not sleep at all, and he would not leave her.

She was the only family he had.

She loved him through everything and protected him from anyone who tried to hurt him.

She never told him he was wrong, but continuously covered up his mistakes.

She gave him the world and he couldn't even do one simple thing.

What was the point of being a hybrid if you couldn't even protect the people most dear to you? What was the point of living if the people around you continue to die?

Tyler laid his mother down, her damp clothes seeping into his sheets. He tucked her in with shaky hands and calmed his temper with deep breaths so that he wouldn't end up ripping the comforter apart altogether.

His mother would not sleep alone tonight.

Tyler slid down onto the floor, leaning against the mattress, and let Caroline slip into his arms and rest her head on his chest. She whispered, "Everything is going to be alright. Not now, not tomorrow, and maybe not in the week or month to come, but gradually. You'll wake up each day and the pain will be a little bit less than the day before. And I will always be with you Tyler."

Caroline is always arriving.

She loves him. She would never betray him.

She would never give up on him. She would never leave him.

_For eternity_.

* * *

It wasn't until Caroline had fallen asleep that something occurred to Tyler.

Something even more horrible and terrifying than what had happened tonight.

Klaus is wanting to kill him—Tyler had felt it in the air heavy with the blood of his brethren. And Tyler felt no fear in fighting to the death, but then he remembered Caroline. What if she got in the way—got stuck in the crossfire? What if she had the stupid idea of trading an eternity with Klaus, in order to keep him alive?

Could something so terrible happen?

But Klaus has such a liking towards Caroline, it's not impossible if things turned out that way.

And Caroline would agree if it meant saving him.

Tyler tensed as the thoughts meshed together inside his head. He felt like he was going to go insane with his mother dead and the possibility of losing Caroline and—

Her arms tightened around him. Caroline burrowed into him and her tears seeped into his clothing. He heard her murmur an apology and sniffle into his chest.

His mind cleared.

Because Caroline would agree to any condition if it meant saving him.

But he would rather die than hand her over to anyone.

* * *

_fin_.


End file.
